Google Adds Account History Settings to Show You What You’ve Been Searching For

Google remembers everything you search for. Now there is even a new Google setting called Account History that lets you browse and manage these old queries including past Google Search history, places you’ve been, YouTube searches and videos you’ve watched. Google uses these saved searches to help deliver better search and YouTube suggestions, advertisements and to power apps like Google Now and Maps.

Google users can pause these various features and data streams to stop Google from tracking this information. However, according to Google:

Pausing Google Search History may limit or disable features such as Google Now, more accurate search results and predictions, and saved searches on mobile devices. Pausing Google Location History will limit the functionality of some Google products over time, such as Google Maps and Google Now. Pausing YouTube Search History does not delete existing history. To view your history, remove individual items, or clear your entire history, go to your YouTube Search History page.

Having access to these streams can be useful to improve your recommendations. For instance, the things you’ve watched on YouTube are the most important sources for how YouTube recommends videos for you. Now, you can delete entries that you don’t like that would eventually mislead YouTube about your video watching preferences!